There's an ugly racial component to the way Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) went after Vice President Kamala Harris this week, a political analyst told an MSNBC host Thursday.
Sanders followed the lead of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) in attacking Harris for not having any biological children, saying that she does not have that influence to "humble" her as a person — even though she has spent years raising stepchildren.
The key point, Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher said, is Sanders' use of the word "humble."
"I'm going to take this and lean into another dimension on it," said Belcher. "I agree with everything that's been said, but I want to unpack another dimension that I think speaks to why they're doing this."
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"Look, as a child of the South, someone who was born and raised in the South, and hearing a deeply Southern governor say that we're humble, it stinks of a trope that I think I'm familiar with," said Belcher, who is Black. "It stinks of a racial trope that I think I'm very familiar with, and the key word being humble. It's always been about, 'You uppity Blacks,' and 'You got to know your place.' And I think that is a dimension that I think they're leaning into, and they lean into constantly. And Vice President Harris is an 'uppity Black' who doesn't know her place and needs to be 'humble.'"
"That's how I connect the dots on this statement, humbly," he added. "I put it, again, within the context of them leaning in to racial aversion and aggrievement politics, and this is absolutely a dog whistle, historical dog whistle when you're talking about Blacks not being humble and knowing their place."
Watch the video below or at the link here.